TN: 1994 Henschke Keyneton Estate

I picked this one up in the mid to late 90s, along with some Cyril Henschke, and some Mt. Edelstone Shiraz. I opened a bottle early on and found it a bit disappointing, so I intentionally forgot about it for a quarter century until the othet day when I came across it and decided to have another go. It is a shiraz, cabernet, malbec blend.

The ripe overly sweet fruit that had spoiled the wine when young had thankfully passed off and it presented as a mature wine. Smoke and mint plus green tea and mature syrah, and most of the sweetness in the finish was abated. Now very pleasant.

This one presaged the “fruit by the bushel and damn any subtlety or complexity” that was the byword for many/most Aussie wineries in the first decade of this century where shock and awe was the target for getting big review points.

I wasn’t sure if this one would come around, but happy that it did. I still have around 10 cases of Aussie wines pre 2000 and think it is time to start pulling corks!

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FIFY

… but otherwise, yes this is a different beast to those wines. It could be a little variable, and never quite sure if it would get beyond ~ 2 decades, but this bottle has clearly done so in fine style.

Nice note, Bill. I’ve got some mid-90s Henschke Cyril, Mt Edelstone, and HoG that I’ll be getting stuck into on my visit home for Christmas. Notoriously awful corks aside, I’m thinking they’ll be holding up just fine - looking forward to it!

When you crack the cases, keep posting notes!

Ask and you shall receive - see TN: 1995 Leasingham Shiraz Classic Clare

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“Shock and awe” wines. Great descriptor!